


Moments in the Neath

by laurus_nobilis



Category: Fallen London | Echo Bazaar, The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Drabble Sequence, Multi, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 03:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17890526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurus_nobilis/pseuds/laurus_nobilis
Summary: The main six characters from The Arcana, if they were denizens of the Neath.





	Moments in the Neath

**i.**

Sometimes, if you go to that little tent behind the House of Mirrors at just the right moment, you can find the Wandering Magician. Nobody knows where he goes when he leaves London. But when he comes back, he spends his days at Mrs Plenty's Carnival, reading the cards.

Madame Shoshana calls him "the competition", but she seems to like him anyway. The urchins like him too.

It's the devils who avoid him. 

Some denizens of the Neath have a soul; some do not. The Wandering Magician, the devils say when you ask them, does not belong to either category.

 

**ii.**

Rumour has it that the Widowed Countess suffers from terrible headaches, but nobody has found a cure yet. Nothing, not even honey-dreams, seems to help.

You suspect it would be easier to find a solution if anyone could tell what was causing the problem. But either the Countess herself doesn't know, or she is not telling.

Meanwhile, she continues visiting the Shuttered Palace. She is well-liked in those circles of society, far more than the Count ever was.

Rumour considers this, too. She rises above it with elegance. Murder, however impermanent it may be here, is beneath her.

 

**iii.**

The Fugitive Doctor seems to enjoy the mystery around him. Encourage it, even. He lives for the contradictions.

At times, he sounds like the most knowledgeable professors at the University; at times, like a pirate fresh from the Unterzee. He calls himself Fugitive - although he never explains what he is running from - and yet he makes a spectacle of himself at the Singing Mandrake. He spends so much time around Tomb Colonists that it borders on suspicious.

When he tells you that pursuing him is only asking for trouble, you believe he means every word.

You cannot help yourself, anyway.

 

**iv.**

You meet the Trusted Handmaiden while you're trying to get away from a particularly boring tea at the Shuttered Palace. She seems to be doing the same. You promise not to tell anyone, if she helps you find something more interesting to do.

She agrees to the bargain without hesitation. She knows the Palace like the back of her hand. She can tell you about all the secret passages, all the best eavesdropping spots, and a fair amount of secrets. It doesn't surprise you to learn she has an affinity for cats.

It becomes a quite profitable afternoon, after all.

 

**v.**

At first glance, you almost take him for a Clay Man. Large, strong, and silent, blending into the shadows around him. But when the lamplight flickers near him, you can see the scarred human flesh.

The Neath has been unkind to the Fearsome Outsider.

The vague recollection of rumours, unproven and contradictory, comes to you. They say he has killed on the Provocative Count's orders. That he comes from far away. That he is what urchins grow into.

When you walk past him, he shrinks even further into the shadows.

You leave him behind and forget he was ever there.

 

**vi.**

You don't miss the Provocative Count, precisely. He was, to put it mildly, an unpleasant fellow.

But his scandalous parties - those certainly deserve to be missed. No other entertainment in the Neath is quite so wild, so decadent. They were worth enduring his personality. They may even be worth his return.

That part, however, remains to be seen. It's not yet clear if the Count will return at all. Fires can be a messy business. Even in the best of cases, his time in the Tomb Colonies could be very long.

It's a shame. Parties are wasted on Tomb Colonists.


End file.
